NATIVES’ WIRELESS

Southland Times, Issue 18963, 9 June 1923, Page 8

NATIVES’ WIRELESS

NEWS BY DRUMBEATS FROM VILLAGE TO VILLAGE.

Primitive natives in darkest South Africa maintain a system of wireless telegraphy that is as efficient as that which spans the Atlantic and links the civilisation of the Old World and the New.

Nothing more pretentious than the bark drum is their sending instrument, and their highly attuned ears are the receiver. From village to village, by a series of drum beats, resembling somewhat our own Morse code, the natives convey the news of battle, the marning of approaching enemies or epidemic, and other subjects of importance to jungle denizens Kaffir drum telegraphy is operated almost exclusively in the stillness of the night, when the tap on the tightly drawn skin is heard distinctly for many miles. Sometimes fires are used, but this system is as far behind drum telegraphy as the Morse system is superior to the semaphore. The natives of Africa, from the Cape to Cairo and from the Niger to the Nile, perfected long ago a system of telegraphy which is only less efficient than that in use between London and Paris, and which is less liable to be interrupted. Astonishing stories have been recorded from time to time, and have perplexed the “civilised”world. The fact that Sir Redvers Buller had been defeated at Colenso was known by natives sixty miles away within two hours, and even more striking results have been achieved.

All through the hours of darkness Africa reverberates with the deep beat of the drum. The drum talks to the next village as plainly as the mouth can utter words, telling of village affairs, of the designs of enemies. The news is passed to the next village in a moment, and replies are sent. The drum is the newspaper of “Darkest” Africa, circulating home and foreign intelligence, crop reports, accounts of accidents, political discussions, dramas of domestic life—in fact, all the news that the London Press brings at the breakfast table. Every item of importance is related in beats of the drum from the east coast to the west, passing across the continent with a speed that suggests the miraculous to the simple white man.